A new report reveals The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) in the Pilliga Forest of North West NSW is one of the most critical water recharge areas and is under siege from unconventional gas mining. The report will be presented at today’s meeting of the NSW Great Artesian Basin Advisory Group in Mudgee. Resource company Santos [...]

This important report by Credit Suisse economists discusses the gas price hike, particularly in relation to Santos’ admission that they developed the GLNG plant at Gladstone in part to drive up the price of gas in Australia and force a revaluation of their tenements. The key sentence from the report from Credit Suisse says “Santos [...]

An analysis of the impacts of unconventional gas on health and climate. Click here to download the report. Key findings: Unconventional gas—CSG, shale gas and tight gas—is slated to play a major role in the expansion of Australia’s gas industry, with the majority of future production to be exported. This expansion will be associated [...]

The Australia Institute released this report on the effect of CSG exports on gas prices. It makes the following points: Households in Eastern Australia are about to be hit with more gas price increases which could see wholesale prices triple. The price rises are caused by commencement of gas exports from the huge LNG export [...]

A new study from Duke University in the US shows some homeowners living near shale gas wells appear to be at higher risk of drinking water contamination from stray gases. http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/news/higher-levels-of-stray-gases-found-in-water-wells-near-shale-gas-sites

The Australia Institute has released a new research paper, Pouring more fuel on the fire. The paper updates previous Australia Institute research detailing federal government subsidies to the mining industry. It finds that the federal government has increased taxpayer funded subsidies to the mining industry by 12.5% over the past year, amounting to an increase [...]

Dr Gideon Polya wrote this letter to the Great Artesian Basin Protection Group outlining his concerns over gas replacing renewable energy sources. Dr Polya has been teaching science students at a major Australian university for four decades. He published some 130 works in a five-decade scientific career. Dear Sir/Madam, The Australian Climate Commission has estimated [...]

This is a copy of Soil Scientist Robert Banks’ peer review of the Interim Protocol for Site Verification and Mapping of Biophysical Strategic Agricultural Lands. Robert Banks has sent this document with a letter urging the NSW government “to provide some clarity on the issues raised in the document” and “to get such complex planning [...]

As public sentiment shifts against the sector, NSW’s biggest coal seam gas companies are busier than ever safeguarding their billion dollar babies with the help of high profile and well connected lobbyists.

Together the big CSG players — Metgasco, Santos and AGL — have seven separate lobby firms working for them, more than doubling their clout behind the scenes.

“The largest single water user in the industrialised world is the energy industry. Prodigious amounts are needed to produce nearly every type of electricity and transport fuel across the energy value chain . . .
The link between energy and water is rarely discussed, yet is of huge consequence.
It is strange, strange, strange that when it comes to the most important subject on the planet, the basis of all life – water – governments, international agencies, economists, scientists and businesses have consistently underestimated the growth in global demand, and the growing stress on supply.”

Did you know:
• it is estimated there will be 40,000 coal seam gas wells in Australia
• conservative estimates suggest coal seam gas wells could draw 300 gigalitres of water from the ground each year?
• the industry could produce as much greenhouse gas as all the cars on the road in Australia?
• modelling suggests the industry could produce 31 million tonnes of waste salt over the next 30 years?

First Eastern Star Gas, and then Santos, failed to report a 10,000-litre spill of toxic saline water from their CSG operation in the Pilliga State Forest. The State govt. says there is “potential for prosecution”.

Mr McLindon, a former LNP member and sitting Beaudesert MP, said he had joined the blockade because he shared the residents’ concerns about the mining practice.
“The coal seam gas threat has well and truly reached the heart of the Scenic Rim as the foreign-owned company, Arrow Energy, rolls out its exploration permits,” Mr McLindon said on Friday.

Walgett schoolteacher, Mr Robins, said the protesters wanted baseline water tests to be conducted on local aquifers before drilling was allowed to begin.
“We need to know what is in there now, because after drilling, once it’s contaminated we have to know who is responsible,” he said.

An original investigative report by Earth Focus and UK’s Ecologist Film Unit looks at the risks of natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale. From toxic chemicals in drinking water to unregulated interstate dumping of potentially radioactive waste that experts fear can contaminate water supplies in major population centers including New York City, are the health consequences worth the economic gains?

The Russian research vessel Academician Lavrentiev conducted a survey of 10,000 square miles of sea off the coast of eastern Siberia. They made a terrifying discovery – huge plumes of methane bubbles rising to the surface from the seabed.
‘We found more than 100 fountains, some more than a kilometre across,’ said Dr Igor Semiletov, ‘These are methane fields on a scale not seen before. The emissions went directly into the atmosphere.’

MEDIA RELEASE: Last Thursday, 15 December 2011, approximately fifty people attended the ‘What Is In Our Water Forum’ at the Walgett RSL Memorial Hall. This meeting was organised by Lock The Gate Walgett, a group of concerned community members who wish to raise awareness about the risks and dangers associated with coal seam gas mining in NSW.

SOUTHERN Highlands representatives at the NSW Upper House Inquiry into coal seam gas (CSG) mining in Mittagong on Friday were overshadowed by a powerful statement from Rivers SOS.
Ms Graham spoke about the “white elephant” in the room being the “undue influence” that mining companies had over Australia’s political process.
She received rousing applause from the gallery.

Rigorous studies on fracking have been sparse, and the impassioned debate has raged on. A new investigation by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at a site in Wyoming is one of the first to look thoroughly at the potential link between fracking operations and groundwater contamination. The agency’s report was released yesterday—and it provides a clear link between fracking and water supply problems.
“Given the results of this work, as well as the significant questions that remained, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry recommended that the affected residents “use alternate or treated water supplies… as their source of drinking water.” The agency also recommended that they install vents on their wells and ventilate bathrooms while showering to prevent any possibility of explosive hazards caused by accumulating methane.”

An American filmmaker shooting a documentary about the environmental and social impacts of Australia’s coal industry, says farmers have little power to stop mining projects.
Mike O’Connell’s documentary records the impacts of the coal industry in Queensland and New South Wales.

“Country Labor has taken a stand and called on the O’Farrell Government to immediately suspend all Coal Seam Gas exploration licenses before irreparable damage is caused to ground water and aquifers in the Northern Rivers,” Mr Ellem said.
“We have said that until a regulatory framework is in place based on independent scientific research and conclusive evidence, we should not be allowing Coal Seam Gas mining to proceed freely.

“Internal advice to the Queensland government had warned five years ago that coal-seam gas development was dictated by misplaced “technological optimism” that environmental problems could be solved, when there was no way to assess the industry’s “cumulative impact” on farming and water.”
This is just more instances of professional advice that Anna Bligh ignored. She – and Tony Burke – also ignored Dr Chloe Munro, the Commissioner of the National Water Commission, who warned them of the huge impacts to the GAB.

FORMER coal-seam gas mechanical technician Roy Michie, who spent eight years working fracking wells across Australia, claims the industry is dominated by “cowboys” who are subject to substandard regulation.

Yet it is fair to say the risks here are considerable. As the committee report emphasises, we cannot afford to be reckless with the Great Artesian Basin because it is one of the nation’s most precious natural resources.